Browsing: Europe

Europe is a continent and is different to the European Union.

Switzerland’s non-membership of the EU means it is viewed as more neutral than countries like Austria, Ireland or Sweden.

Polish opposition parties appear to have won enough votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election to oust the governing nationalist conservative party, with the highly-anticipated election bringing out the largest numbers of voters in decades. So far exit polls and around a quarter of votes that have been counted confirm a “remarkable” victory for the three parties opposing the right-wing Law and Justice party, said France 24 corresepondant Gulliver Cragg, reporting from Warsaw.

Talking Europe hosts the newly appointed EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra. The EU has put the Green Deal at the heart of its policy making, and Hoekstra was confirmed in the key job after somewhat fractious hearings in the European Parliament, where some MEPs drew attention to his past work for oil and gas giant Shell. We discuss his plans for implementing the green transition, and the upcoming COP28 summit in Dubai.

The EU faces what is arguably its stiffest foreign policy test since the war in Ukraine. A devastating attack on Israel by Hamas has been met with a massive Israeli response in the Gaza Strip. It is being described as the worst chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the war of October 1973. We discuss how convincing – or otherwise – the EU’s response has been so far, as well as the EU’s messaging mess when it comes to the question of continued development aid to the Palestinians.

A former prime minister of Slovakia who plans to end the country’s military support for Ukraine is poised to return to office after his political party signed a deal Wednesday with two other parties to form a coalition government.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday visits NATO headquarters in Brussels for the first time since the Russian invasion, the military alliance said. Zelensky was in Romania on Tuesday for talks with President Klaus Iohannis about security and grain exports. Read our live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday accused Moscow of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas in its war against Israel. This came after the president travelled to Romania for the first time since Russia’s invasion to speak to President Klaus Iohannis about artillery and air defence supplies. Follow FRANCE 24’s liveblog for the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

EU foreign ministers are meeting Tuesday to discuss the bloc’s development aid to the Palestinian territories following a diplomatic row over an announcement of a suspension of Palestinian aid by Oliver Varhelyi, EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement. FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating explains that several EU memeber states “reacted angrily” to Varhelyi’s statement ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.